Is the assassination of the leader of the South Korean opposition party, who went on hunger strike to resist Japan's nuclear sewage discharge, and his life and death are uncertain, the result of the South Korean party dispute?
Less than two years later, on January 2, 2024, a similar attack on a politician occurred in South Korea, another major country in East Asia, where Lee Jae-myung, the leader of South Korea's largest opposition party, was assassinated while attending an event and was taken to the hospital with neck injuries.
Many people may be unfamiliar with Lee Jae-myung, but when it comes to politicians who went on hunger strike due to Japan's discharge of nuclear sewage some time ago, I believe everyone has an impression. That's right, that person is Lee Jae-myung who was attacked. Of course, Lee Jae-myung's hunger strike is not only aimed at the discharge of nuclear wastewater, but his main appeal is to protest against the "tyrannical" behavior of the Yoon Suk-yeol government, such as "undermining democracy", with the ultimate goal of ousting the current South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
It is inevitable that Yoon Suk-yeol and Lee Jae-myung will not be at odds, and the two are the leading big brothers of South Korea's two major political parties, respectively, and they were direct rivals in the presidential race.
The previous president of South Korea was Moon Jae-in, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea and a member of the same party as Lee Jae-myung. After Moon Jae-in left office, Lee Jae-myung and Yoon Suk-yeol ran for the position of the new president of South Korea. On March 10, 2022, the results of the South Korean presidential election were released, with Lee Jae-myung receiving 47.83% of the vote and Yoon Suk-yeol 48.56%, the latter winning the presidency by only a narrow margin of 0.73 percentage points.
After losing the presidential race, Lee Jae-myung did not lose heart and continued to be active in South Korean politics. On May 6, 2022, Lee Jae-myung announced his candidacy for the by-election for the National Assembly, and was elected to the National Assembly with a high percentage of votes in June of that year, and in July he went one step further and announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Democratic Party of Korea and was elected in August with a high vote rate of 77.8%, the highest number ever for a party leader.
It is almost certain that Lee Jae-myung still covets the South Korean presidency and is very likely to run for the next presidential term. Clues can also be seen from his repeated actions of "challenging" the Yoon Suk-yeol government.
In fact, whether it is a hunger strike against the current government's support for Japan's discharge of nuclear wastewater, or a different view on the chaebol issue, which is the most concerning issue in South Korea, Lee Jae-myung is not entirely on the side of "justice" and the South Korean people, but as a strong candidate for the leader of the opposition party and the future president, he must strongly oppose anything that is supported by the Yoon Suk-yeol government and has a certain degree of controversy.
In this way, he can gain an advantage in public opinion, so that the South Korean people think that the current president is not a good person, even if he does not impeach Yoon Suk-yeol, at least he will get some votes in advance for his next election.
Lee Jae-myung's black history is not small. For example, in September 2021, Lee Jae-myung was suspected of "transferring huge benefits to real estate developers", and in January last year (2023), Lee Jae-myung was investigated by the Suwon District Public Prosecutor's Office for his involvement in the "Seongnam Football Club Sponsorship Money" case, and it was reported that he was suspected of accepting sponsorship funds from a number of companies during his tenure as the mayor of Seongnam City and the owner of Seongnam Football Club in South Korea from 2016 to 2018, and providing building or land use change permits to these companies.
It seems that Lee Jae-myung has a lot of economic problems, and of course, it may also be that his political enemies are deliberately pouring dirty water.
As the leader of South Korea's largest opposition party, controversy has continued around Lee Jae-myung. At the same time, he is also a more radical party leader, good at guiding public opinion, coupled with the two major political parties in South Korea for many years of open and secret fighting, there are many people who hate and even hate Lee Jae-myung, and it is not surprising that he was attacked by extremists.
Another possibility is that the assassination of Lee Jae-myung was the result of a partisan feud, and that Yoon Suk-yeol or important figures in his party planned the attack, and that killing Lee Jae-myung would indeed reduce the pressure on South Korea's current president. However, I don't think that's likely because the benefits aren't proportional to the risks.
Yoon Suk-yeol will become the president of South Korea in 2022, and it will be 2027 after 5 years. More importantly, even if the assassination is successful, it may not be able to alleviate the pressure from the people, political opponents, and public opinion, and the benefits will be minimal; once the matter is revealed, it will be fatally hit, and not only will the South Korean president be lost, but he will also be imprisoned.
It's like if you have 100,000 yuan in cash, and now there is an opportunity, after all the investment, there is a 10% probability that 100,000 yuan will become 150,000 yuan, and a 90% probability will be lost. I believe that no one in their right mind will think that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a fortune. Yoon Suk-yeol and his party are facing such a situation, do you think it is necessary for him to do such a high-risk, low-reward thing?
After Lee Jae-myung was assassinated, Yoon Suk-yeol has responded, "Violence cannot be tolerated." The incumbent president of South Korea was also afraid of being drawn into the public opinion of the party dispute, so he hurriedly issued a statement to clear up the relationship, and almost told everyone directly, "I am not so stupid to plan such a stupid thing."
So who was the person who stabbed Lee Jae-myung in the neck with a knife? Most likely, it was because of ordinary people affected by his advocacy policies or extreme supporters of pro-Western forces. South Korea is considered to be one of the most "volatile" countries in the world, not to mention that it has long been an economically developed country, the pressure of the vast majority of the people at the bottom is very heavy, and the chaebol problem is almost unsolvable, so I will not be surprised that ordinary Korean people do anything.